


The Perfect Tree to Draw Under

by Shwindu



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, F/F, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Mentions of Dave Strider/Jade Harley (Past) - Freeform, Russian Nepeta, lil bit of cats and dogs never hurt anyone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-07-30 00:45:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16275719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shwindu/pseuds/Shwindu
Summary: Once upon a time, a friendship so strong blossomed in a mere park. The broship is unreal man. This is the story of how the two artists meet because of one of the artist's friends convinced them to meet their crush because their crush was visiting Texas.





	The Perfect Tree to Draw Under

**Author's Note:**

> This was written as a contest entry. Much like my fanfic "Fishbones and Seashells", I really liked the result and decided to post it here!  
> If you enjoy some platonic Davepeta friendship building I suggest you keep reading, and remember that comments are always appreciated and worshiped by authors!

\-- gardenGnostic [GG] began pestering turntechGodhead [TG] \-- 

GG: dave!!   
GG: you awake?   
GG: hello?   
GG: dave i can see that youre online!!   
TG: jeez harley chill   
TG: let the man come to the computer before you start badgering him with messages why dont ya   
GG: sorry...   
GG: its just so boring over here!!   
GG: i wish i could just move to you guys already! :(   
GG: grandpas nice but i miss my friends!   
GG: a girl can only spend so much time around a big, hairy, and over enthusiastic mammal and her dog before she starts feeling antsy.   
TG: wow burn   
TG: hope your grandpa has ice for that well executed flame   
GG: i don't think we have ENOUGH ice (hehe)   
TG: feels bad harls   
TG: i barely even knew the guy   
TG: and now hell have to go to the hospital  
TG: thats the consequence of not having enough ice at home  
TG: fly over the god damned ocean in a shitty helicopter to get some aid  
TG: flying for hours with a drunk pilot because they didnt have anyone else to send  
TG: its just a girls grandpa we dont have to send jeremy  
TG: jeremy has better things to do  
TG: hey dan want to fly over a whole ocean to aid a girls grandpa because she burned him severely enough that they didnt have enough ice for him  
TG: at least you get to visit us here in murica   
TG: welcome to the usa harls  
TG: enjoy the visit  
TG: oh wait whos going to take care of the dog  
TG: nevermind that devil beast can take care of himself  
TG: jade you there  
TG: you wouldve interjected by now  
TG: one two three is this thing on  
TG: should i try it in another language  
TG: un deux trois harls you hear me  
TG: how rude you don't even answer after i search up how to count in french  
GG: sorry i got distracted.  
TG: distracted by your girlfriend you mean?  
GG: uh.  
TG: talking to your gal pal instead of dear ol dave  
TG: just skip the whole get your parents permission phase and get right to the marrying part  
GG: UH.  
TG: at least get some bathrobes and soap for papa strider after your honeymoon.  
GG: dave.  
TG: yes sweet precious jade  
GG: could we possibly just maybe change the subject?  
TG: alright so was there anything you wanted from me except for getting rid of your boredom?  
GG: well...  
GG: no not really!  
TG: i got some sweet beats that i just finished if you want to listen?  
GG: hell yes!!! :D  
GG: actually wait. first!  
GG: no talking while i say this.  
GG: nepeta is actually visiting houston this week, she said it's something about an "art oppurrtunity".  
GG: i think you'd like her.  
GG: she also said something about visiting a local park.   
GG: so if you meet her tell her i said hi!  
TG: B)  
GG: shut up!

**_== >_ **

Your name is DAVE STRIDER, and you are extremely bored. Immensely bored. Unfathomably bored. So drastically bored that you have been forced to coming up with synonyms to "extremely" to tame your boredom. Strikingly bored- no okay you're stopping yourself there this has become really lame.

All your FRIENDS are offline so you can't talk to them, and you have no motivation to work on SBaHJ. You've hit a wall with your MUSIC as well so you can't continue with that either. You've thought about falling asleep but it's still in the middle of the day, and you've got better things to do even if you don't know what those things are.

You look out of the window for what may be the millionth time this past hour --you're room has nothing you haven't already seen-- and stare at the sky. It's an even amount of cloudy and blue sky, one of the better days of this years summer you think. This is when you get an idea.

You mentally debate with yourself if this idea is worth it, but one look at your room is enough motivation for it to be. You stand up and grab one of your plentiful of sketchbooks and your apple themed pencil case, anyone who says you're obsessed is lying. You then go to the kitchen and grab an apple. 

What? You're kinda hungry but not hungry enough for lunch. Therefore, a snack.

You then head out of your apartment (after locking the door like a responsible adult because one too many times of incidents have taught you to remember locking the door) and start your trek to the park.

About halfway there you remember your conversation with Jade earlier this week. Even more reason to go to the park. You try to remember anything that Jade has told you about the girl's appearance. The only thing that comes to mind is that she likes cats and is also Russian apparently. You hope that'll be enough.

** > Dave: Remember one important detail. **

You remember one important detail that probably would've been useful to remember before you arrived at the park. That certain detail is that it isn't guarantied that the girl  -- Nepeta right? -- is going to be at the park you're at when you arrive there. The park you're at is one of the more local and popular ones, but that doesn't mean anything if the girl isn't here at this time. That is obvious by the lack of crowds in the park, much less girls who look vaguely russian and look like they like cat things.

_How does someone look if they're russian? Is that racist?_

So instead of heading back to your boring as shit apartment where you have nothing to do, you decide to wait it out in the considerably less boring but uneventful park.

Finding a nice tree to sit against, you bring out your sketchbook and pencil case. Bringing out your favorite red pen, you start sketching mindlessly on the page. You're already wearing your headphones and are listening to some good ol' Katzenjammer, you've been hooked to their music ever since you found them.

Some SBaHJ content which you will probably post on the web later becomes the majority of the page's content.

_Wonder what these guys are thinking when they look at me. "Oh look at that boy drawing against that tree, what a hipster." Yeah so what if I'm a hipster, I could also be a millionaire but you would be focusing on the hipster part of me. Hello welcome to Starbucks how can I help you- oh great they left because I'm a hipster. Sorry boss another customer left because of me. Oh okay thanks a lot customer I'm now jobless because of you. And working at Starbucks was my only life goal. Thanks a lot._

Mental rambles are a daily occurence to you, and it usually ends with you noticing a handful of time has flown by. This time 15 minutes has flown by, and you're not all that surprised to be honest. It's not a new record, that stands at somewhere around 3 hours maybe? Still, enough time has passed that new people have arrived at the park. Among those people, are a mother and some of what you assume are her kids, a group of guys dicking around at the park instead of studying, and a girl sitting in a tree drawing. 

She's short and blonde and ohh wait wait wait what if that's her?

...

Okay wow back up.

That's incredibly stupid of you to assume. Not every girl on the street is called Mary, why would she be Nepeta? Yes she draws and yes a certain percentage of russians may be blonde but still.

Though...there isn't any confirmation that that ISN'T her.

Before you can think through this any further you stand up and stride over to her. You then remember your stuff is back at the tree and quickly go back to get that. You can just hear the Egbertian giggles at your minor mistake.

You try to think of what to say to her when you do arrive. You can't just go with "Hey are you Nepeta?" because that'd be really creepy of you and it'd probably scare her away. You barely have anytime to form any sentences in your mind before you arrive at her tree. Welp. Better just wing it.

You knock on the tree trunk to get her attention, and the girls perks up looking down at you. Your eyes lock with hers, your rad shades against her olive green colored eyes. She stares down at you like a curious cat and you stare back like a sort of defensive crow. Of course, with your shades you appear just as stoic as you usually do.

You hope.

It takes a moment for you to remember that a conversation actually has to have some sort of dialogue in it.

"So...uh, what're you drawing?" You ask with lack of any other conversational topics. Instead of being bothered by your awkwardness, she smiles and turns her sketchbook towards you. 

"It's one of my fur-ends!" She tells you, her voice laced with a subtle russian accent.  _Okay very likely that this is her._ You think to yourself as you inspect her drawing. It's a very simplistic drawing of a girl with long hair holding a potted plant. Nothing out of the ordinary. The thing that tips you off is the girl's big circular glasses.

"So what's your name blondie?" You ask casually and you catch her roll her eyes from your peripheral vision. You also think you hear her mutter something in russian but it's not like you would understand.

"Nepeta!" She answers happily.

_I knew it._

"Well Nepeta, I'll call you Nep, my name's Dave. Dave Strider." You tell her leaning against the tree trunk all cool like the coolkid you are. 

You watch her narrow her eyes as she stares at you, before straightening up realization flashing in her eyes.

"You know Jade?" She asks and you can't help the corners of your lips perking up. 

"Yup, been friends with her for a while. Guess you've heard of me?" You ask and you let some smugness seep into your voice. She either doesn't notice it, or doesn't care. 

"She talks about mew sometimes," She says and you nod along, noticing the cat puns she uses. Pretty cute, you can see why Jade has the hots for this girl.

"She said you were in a relationship once?" She continues, the end of her statement turning to a question. 

"Yeah, but it was a pretty long time ago. Just friends now, in case you were worried about that," You chuckle a bit as you say this. For extra effect you lower your shades and wink at her, and become pretty satisfied with the added color to her face. Yeah, you definitely see why Jade likes this girl.

"Anyway! What were you drawing," She changes the subject briskly, her hands waving about flusteredly. You decide to give her a break and stop the teasing, there'll be enough time for that later probably. You show her the page of your sketchbook where you had been drawing. She examines it closely, nodding a bit to herself.

"Want to draw with me?" She asks tilting her head as she asks her question. You take a moment to consider her request, but there isn't much chance that you'll actually decline.

"Eh, why not. Sure," you tell her nodding. She grins and swings her legs off the branch and jump down from the tree, landing perfectly like a cat.

When you actually get to compare, you notice that she's a lot shorter than you. But then again you've never been average sized. Jade is the tallest of your social circle from what she's told you, but after her you tower over everyone else.

Nepeta plops down against the tree trunk, bringing her legs up and resting her sketchbook against them. You follow suit, but you instead cross your legs and place your sketchbook in your lap instead. The girl stares into space for a while before turning to you, a strange fire in her eyes.

"Hey, could you purrssibly teach me meow to draw in that style? It looks fun!" She asks you pointing at one of your SBaHJ doodles, featuring John and a stupid looking hammer you designed in a minute. You raise your eyebrows in surprise looking at her but she's completely serious.

"You sure you can handle it? It's kinda complicated," You warn her, trying to keep the grin off of your face. Strider code says to keep cool at least 95% of the time, if not 101% of the time.

"Yeah! I can handle it!" She shouts pounding her fist into the air, bringing some of the park passerby's attention to the two of you. You stifle a laugh at her enthusiastic determination. 

"Alright fine Nep. Copy what I do," you instruct and bring out your red pen. Nepeta hovers over the page as you start drawing. You make a quick decision to start drawing her, taking artistic liberty and adding a cat beanie with those sorts of pompoms hanging off at the sides to her look. She snorts at your decision but doesn't say anything else.

After another minute you've proudly finished your masterpiece --which you'll call Negepa-- and proudly add your signature. 

"Think you can do better than that?" 

"Oh you're on!"

**== >**

Your name is DAVE STRIDER and you got beaten at your own game. 

It took a few minutes, but Nepeta one upped your Negepa with her Deav. She perfectly captured the essence of the SBaHJ style along with your own personal charm. You were impressed.

So a high hive and a chumhandle exchange later, you said your see you laters and are currently heading to your local McDonalds for some lunch. You take out your phone for one last conversation before entering the prestigious restaurant.

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering gardenGnostic [GG] \-- 

TG: so  
TG: i just met your crush and i just wanna say  
TG: that i give you my fatherly approval

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering gardenGnostic [GG] \-- 

**== >**

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering arsenicCatnip [AC] \-- 

TG: sup  
AC: :33 < sup!  
AC: :33 < actually i have something to show you!

AC  sent a picture

TG: no way  
TG: you actually found a cat beanie  
AC: :33 < yup!  
TG: its awesome  
AC: :33 < *ac nods her head enthusiastically her pompoms waving around distracting her*  
AC: :33 < *she starts playing with the balls of her hat like a cat does with a mouse*  
TG: *tg watches the cat play with her hat*  
TG: *he decides to take some pictures to possibly send to a certain someone later*  
AC: :33 < *ac pawses in her game and watched tg warrily*  
TG: B) *he does the cool glasses thing that the smartasses always do in the animes*  
AC: :33 < h33h33

**Author's Note:**

> P.S. If you've ever listened to or have heard of Katzenjammer, high five because I really like their music :3.


End file.
